Ars dives into the public document trove to find out just what the EFF, RIAA, …

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We're all atwitter with anticipation as the US Trade Representative huddles in secret with a few other wealthy countries to craft the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. What will our benevolent overlords stick in the agreement on our behalf? Who knows? It's all secret!

But bits of the work in progress can be glimpsed. A bullet-point draft of possible ACTA items was leaked a few weeks back, as was the RIAA's ACTA wishlist. Over the last two weeks, Public Knowledge and then the USTR itself have made the comments on the ACTA draft public, and they make for fascinating reading. Every interest group in the country, it seems, from the EFF to the RIAA to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, has a Christmas list... and they're hoping that ACTA will play Santa Claus.

Given that the treaty threatens to go way beyond "counterfeiting" to encompass ISP filtering, DRM rules, three-strikes laws, and less privacy for IP addresses, it's worth taking a look at what some of the highest-profile tech groups want from the agreement. Enjoy.

RIAA

On Internet file-swapping: "Policy makers and law enforcement authorities must also recognize that Internet-based infringement, even when done without a profit motive, takes place on a commercial scale and has the same impact on copyright owners as for-profit piracy. It is essential—and required by TRIPS—to criminalize such conduct, even though the individual actor may not be acting with any profit incentive, or possess what one would ordinarily think of as 'criminal intent.'"

On ISPs: ISPs should be required to employ "available technological tools that would prevent infringement provided that use of such tools would not pose an unreasonable financial burden and would not impair the operation of the network."

Knowledge Ecology International

On the term "piracy": "Although there is not an agreed upon definition of piracy, the terms piracy and infringement should not be considered as synonyms. Piracy is a colorful and emotive term that does not elevate or inform debates about enforcement in areas where the intent or the appropriateness of infringing activities are subject to nuance or legitimate policy debate."

Business Software Alliance (BSA)

On strong privacy laws: "In a number of European countries one of the biggest impediments to efforts by rights holder to enforce their IP rights on the Internet is the overbroad interpretation of privacy laws by some European authorities... These authorities consider Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to be personal data that cannot be collected or used without the permission of the individual with whom the data are associated."

On anticircumvention rules: "Any ACTA-required protection for TPMs would reinforce a system that, at least in the United States, has failed to adequately account for a range of lawful uses. The DMCA, which implements the WCT, imposes a blanket ban against circumvention of technological protection measures with extremely narrow exceptions that do not account for fair use and other lawful uses."

EDUCAUSE, Center for Democracy & Technology, CEA

On differences between online and offline enforcement: "ACTA should be technologically neutral and not create disparate burdens or obligations depending on whether counterfeit product is sold online or offline... Special penalties that target the Internet are inappropriate."

On ISP filtering: "ACTA should not encourage the imposition of technology mandates, such as the mandatory filtering of Internet traffic."

Entertainment Software Association (ESA)

On mod chips and DRM: "It is imperative that the ACTA enforcement chapter contain provisions obliging partner countries to enact prohibitions specifically addressed to the act of cirucumvention and to trafficking in circumvention devices."

On warez: "It is critical that the ACTA enforcement chapter contain the elements necessary for providing an effective framework for enforcement against online piracy."

MPAA

On camcording: "ACTA partners should criminalize the unauthorized camcording of motion pictures in theaters."

On "three strikes" laws: "ACTA partners should ensure that the interpretation of data privacy rules appropriately balances the fundamental rights of privacy and property, including intellectual property, in such a way as to encourage meaningful cooperation with telcos/ISPs, in particular the implementation of a 'graduated response' mechanism."

Aaron Shaw, PhD student, Sociology, UC-Berkeley

On ACTA's threat to the entire world: "ACTA threatens the interests of the United States and the world and it ought to be abandoned immediately."